Orange County's Mulligan Field Hockey Club, home of "The Divots" U19 team are gold medal winners for the 2008 National Festival. This USA National Festival is one of the most premier tournament events in the country to win while players are looking to catch the eyes of college coaches. What an exciting week of field hockey lead by our team captain Clair "Bear" Layton, Newport Harbor HS and anchored by our two exceptional standout senior players, Shannon Rohan, Newport Harbor HS and Colleen Ryan, Huntington Beach HS, !

Julie Elkins cried only twice during her 11-year battle with breast cancer. The first time was while walking out of a clinic with the words, "You have cancer" ringing in her ears. The second was when her husband shaved her head. The Costa Mesa resident was also unprepared for the chemotherapy-induced loss of her eyebrows and eyelashes, she recalled. "I looked like Charlie Brown when I was bald," said Elkins, 52, laughing. "I learned how to tie scarves so I wouldn't look stupid.

There have been a few shows (“Noises Off” comes to mind) in which one gag is piled onto another and the cast quickly establishes and sustains an atmosphere of perpetual pandemonium. One such play, which curiously has seen little attention locally, is George Furth’s early 1980s howler “The Supporting Cast.” It’s now holding forth (as a replacement vehicle) at the Newport Theater Arts Center under the inspired direction of Michael Ross. Furth wove some sure-fire location chuckles into his mix. Four of the five characters are New Yorkers transplanted briefly to the Malibu beachfront in the midst of California’s fire and earthquake seasons.

PASADENA - The Newport Harbor High's distance medley relay squad won first place at the Pasadena Games at Pasadena City College Saturday, as the Sailors' boys track and field team completed some personal best times. Harbor's distance medley relay consisted of junior Jesus Santana, who ran the 1,200, senior Rich Weber ran the 400, senior John Peschelt took the baton for the 800 and senior Chris McMillen completed the victory with his run in the 1,600.

Campaign signs have been blooming like perennials around Newport-Mesa in recent weeks, and some residents complain the signs are being trampled or uprooted like weeds. And while signs disappear or get wrecked in pretty much every election, it has people angry. "It is not the American way," Newport Beach resident George Margolin said. Late last week, signs in his yard supporting Newport Beach council candidates Barbara Venezia and Dolores Otting were knocked down several times in one afternoon, and some of the wooden sign stakes were broken off, Margolin said.

Memorial services are often somber. But not for the people who loved former Daily Pilot columnist Joe Bell. They celebrated his life Tuesday night at UC Irvine, where he taught journalism. They had — and I know this sounds strange given the context of the event — fun. Fun talking about the 92 years Joe filled with World War II service, driveway basketball games, articles in the Saturday Evening Post, frustrations with Angels baseball (2002 excepted), afternoons of martinis and popcorn, the hosting of exchange students and political discussions around the dinner table.

Costa Mesa is blaming the weak economy and the foreclosure crisis for the significant increase it’s seen this year in the number of dilapidated houses around town and illegal advertising signs on major traffic arteries, according to a report compiled by the city. Code enforcement officers investigated more than 20,600 cases in 2008 — up 9% from last year — as many vacant homes have gone without necessary maintenance. The city has also seen an increase in the number of businesses with illegal signs and billboards out front, especially in the retail strip of Newport Boulevard.

Ellen Johnson loves to throw parties, large or small, at her home. She said she's outgrown the days of meeting friends at restaurants for dinner and cocktails, and instead loves visiting at her friends' homes or extending the same invitation to them. Having friends over at least once a month can make for a fairly hectic, but fun, entertaining schedule, but Johnson and her husband Scott are always prepared. And they made sure they were prepared before they even moved into their second Crystal Cove home.

As the sun rose, Lindsey Eastman paddled through the Pacific Ocean, miles out to sea, salty water lapping in her face. For the past few hours she had been fighting a 102-degree body temperature, nausea, and exhaustion and she still had more than 30 miles to go. Regardless, the 22-year-old from Huntington Beach pulled herself through the water, stroke by stroke, until her hour was up. Gruelingly, Eastman lugged herself out of the water and into...